Ukraine: Emmanuel Macron says he wants "the defeat" of Russia, but without "crushing" it

Europe 1 with AFP 9:09 p.m., February 18, 2023, modified at 9:14 p.m., February 18, 2023

Emmanuel Macron said he wanted Moscow to be "defeated" against Ukraine, while warning those who wanted "above all to crush Russia", which will "never" be "France's position".

"I am convinced that in the end, it will not be concluded militarily," he said in an interview with the

, Le

and France Inter, published on Saturday evening.

He also believes that "all the options other than Vladimir Putin within the current system" seem to him "worse" than the Russian president.

Crushing Russia "will never be France's position"

"I don't think, like some, that Russia should be totally defeated, attacked on its soil. These observers want above all to crush Russia. That has never been France's position and it never will be. ever,” he added.

These observers seem in his mind to be those who, especially in Eastern Europe, are more hardline and had strongly criticized in May 2022 his remarks that Russia should not be "humiliated".

In this interview conducted Friday evening on the plane that brought him back from Germany, where he participated in the annual Munich conference on security, the president reaffirms his desire to promote a negotiated outcome.

In his speech in the Bavarian city, he had already considered that Russia should "fail" in Ukraine, but some observers had criticized him for not having gone so far as to evoke a necessary "defeat" of Moscow.

He also explained that it was necessary to "intensify" support for kyiv to move towards "credible negotiations".

The quest for a "return to negotiations"

"What is needed today is for Ukraine to lead a military offensive that disrupts the Russian front in order to trigger a return to negotiations," he insisted to the three media.

According to him, "neither side can fully prevail", "neither Ukraine nor Russia, because the effects of mobilization are not as great as expected and it itself has capacity limits".

Emmanuel Macron also believes that "all the options other than Vladimir Putin within the current system" seem to him "worse" than the Russian president, in an allusion to tough guys like the head of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev or the boss of the group paramilitary Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin.

"Do we sincerely think that a democratic solution will emerge from the Russian civil society present on the spot after these years of hardening and in full conflict? I sincerely hope it, but I do not really believe in it", he warned .